Busyness

Think about your day, how busy are you?  Think about your responsibilities and the time you spend doing all the things that need to get done.  Juggling work and family, if you have one, is a full time job.  You may have activities outside of these things; like jogging or other types of sport activities that you are involved with, or maybe you volunteer some of your time in other things that you feel are important, and maybe they are.

Do you ever think that sometimes you can be so busy with things that you miss out on what is the most important thing that you can be doing, which is spending time with the Lord, if you are a believer?  I am not saying that the things you are doing are not important and also need to be done, but sometimes we get our priorities mixed up and we lose the balance.  We need to be able to accomplish all these things and still grow in our walk with the Lord.

It says this in Psalms 127:1-2, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep.”

There is nothing wrong with human effort but, regardless of what we try to accomplish as believers, we need to involve the Lord in it.  It will take spending time with the Lord if we want His help and His blessings on what we are trying to accomplish.  If you believe that the Lord is interested in all you do, then you will want to include Him in your activities and that will take spending time with Him on a daily basis.  

When man was building the Tower of Babel, they were depending on themselves and their talents and if you know the story, you know how far that got them.  You can find the story in Genesis 11:1-9, “Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, ‘Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.”

This was a great undertaking, a wonder of the world, but it was accredited to man without the Lord’s involvement.  Then, when the Lord chose to get involved, the work ended and was never accomplished.

Now think about the temple Solomon built; it was beautiful because he worked with the Lord and did as the Lord instructed.  You can read about it in 1 Kings Chapter 6, Solomon was able to finish it with the Lord’s help.  

I believe if you are going to build a church or a ministry, or even a Christian family or marriage, and you want it to be fruitful and prosper, you will need to get the Lord involved and seek His guidance and do your part and trust Him for the outcome.  This may take some priority adjusting on our part, but without it we are doomed to failure.  We should daily spend time with Jesus, seeking His will for our lives in prayer and study of the Word.  Sometimes we need to be sitting at Jesus’ feet listening for His directions.

Think of Martha and Mary, when Jesus visited them in Luke 10:38-42, “Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.’

And Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.’”

Martha was busy with so many things that she was missing out on the best thing, spending time with Jesus, listening to Him.  Sometimes we get our priorities mixed up and we try to accomplish things on our own because we are so busy.  Jesus wasn’t blaming Martha for her concern about household chores, but she needed to set her priorities in the right order and so do we.  We need to be careful that our service to the Lord doesn’t take away our devotion to the Lord.  Something to think about!  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may you have a super day!!